Kicking & Screaming, ONE YEAR LATER: Today, July 29 (a year ago 2013) I arrived to my new home in SCL airport (Santiago, Chile) at 7:45am! Its been a L O N G quick year, I honestly cant believe how quick time has continued. I dont feel much in my life has changed but as I take a minute to reflect on this life changing event, WoW, EVERYTHING has changed. Here are a few highlights: My NAME: You NEED to have TWO last names here and if you dont, youre just weird and people have no problem letting you know that. So as of today, Im adopting my Moms family name of Mares! At a time where some of my family members gave forgotten my Moms family name, Im proud to attach it TIGHTER to me and remember it!!!! HEALTH: Im all around 50% better in all aspects of health! Off insulin, have lost weight (hopefully Ill keep it off), gained muscle, I actually exist now (FINALLY) as I walk down the street! Have had 1/2 of my clothes tailored & fitted. I now actually work out when I go to the gym instead of walking around and pretending to do so. I fight everyday with my trainer but hes doing a good job in making me workout!!!! Thats hard thing to do!!!! FOOD: Everything is fresh and 80% made at home, homemade from scratch! More veggies and salads and I actually enjoy tasting & eating them. A year ago I did not like Chilean food as Its VERY and EXTREMELY bland but Ive adapted and realized that less salt is better, smaller portions arent bad, drinks at room temperature are not gonna kill me and less spicy is not the end of the world. Que viva healthier eating habits!!!! PEOPLE/RELATIONSHIPS/FRIENDSHIPS: Ive made a great group of friendships with many types of people. Its a VERY classist culture and people like to put others in their social class/place but the weird thing is that people put themselves into these groups! I wont support others to talk bad about other cultures or people/groups of people BUT Im a little better when people allow themselves to be treated differently. I still talk to everyone and treat everyone the same and funny enough, my best friends are actually the ones considered normal or poor people. This is who I am and I dont care how much $ they have or who they pretend to be. That said, I value my old friendships much more and love it when you guys make time to fit me into your busy schedule just to see you for a quick few seconds on that in-and-out trip to the US! Thank you! INSTANT GRATIFICATION: I no longer have the urgency for immediate gratification. If I want to go to the movies and cant get a ticket, its ok. If I go to a restaurant and order what theyre famous for and they dont have it, I no longer flip out. If I go to the grocery store and 40% of the groceries are out of stock, Ill look for other things that might be even better. If a place of business is closed during normal working hours, Ill just make it a plan to return again and again until theyre really open. Sometimes I feel like Im a third world country where they think theyre a first world country (so the disconnect on what they is cute) CUSTOMER SERVICE: If I find it, I pinch myself! PHONE: No matter what the phone number is, it will take me about 6-10 times to dial the right number, and now Im ok with this. As it depends what you dial before a number if its a mobile or landline and it also matters if youre dialing from a mobile or landline. So forget going to a website or google maps and clicking on dial from there as it wont work. Or of you have a missed call from a business and hit redial, it wont go anywhere, so youll never know which business was calling you. :-/ Sometimes its a place you really want to hear from to set something up!!!! So Ive learned that you gotta play with it! And if youre lucky enough to get the call to go through, good luck having someone answer the phone or get a voice mail. Its common to just call, call, call, and call back. SAVING FACE: If you never get a response or a plain and simple reply, it just means NO! To save face, youre just ignored when they dont want to say no or not do something. Nothing personal and nothing against me. So now I know! ;-) CAREER/WORK: Ive been blessed to be in an industry where I get to help others with their future. University of Tulsa is my hero! And this September well be welcoming 70+ US Universities to Santiago! This is HUGE!!!! All of these things, a year ago, I was fighting them and defending why I was fighting them. Today, Im just thankful to be in a great place and embracing the culture & differences. What was important no longer is. As always, many hugz and come to Chile!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 18:29:16 +0000